Lesson 5

Lesson Question: How does Inuit culture reflect beliefs, issues, and events relevant to societies past and present?

Standards Met:
Performance Expectations for Middle Grades: Theme 1: Culture, from EXPECTATIONS OF EXCELLENCE: CURRICULUM STANDARDS FOR SOCIAL STUDIES, developed by the National Council for Social Studies.

The learner can:

.	compare similarities and differences in the ways groups, societies, and cultures meet human needs and concerns;
.	explain how information and experiences may be interpreted by people from diverse cultural perspectives and frames of reference;
.	explain and give examples of how language, literature, the arts, architecture, other artifacts, traditions, beliefs, values, and behaviors contribute to the development and transmission of culture;
.	explain why individuals and groups respond differently to their physical and social environments and/or changes to them on the basis of shared assumptions, values, and beliefs;
.	articulate the implications of cultural diversity, as well as cohesion, within and across groups.

Students will be able to:

• use a variety of skills to present their new knowledge about Arctic culture to classmates, parents, and others;
• cooperate in small groups (threes) on learning tasks;
• create a rubric for assessment and peer evaluation;
• give and receive peer evaluation;
• reflect on the learning experience for future improvement.

Set-up: Show some Inuit artifacts.

Teaching and Learning Tasks: In groups of three, students will discuss and choose one of the following topics to research and present to parents and to the wider school community:

	.	Inuit education
	.	Lifestyles of Inuit peoples
	.	Inuit music and musicians
	.	Inuit language (Inuktitut) and stories
	.	Inuit beliefs and practices
	.	Inuit art and artists
	.	Permafrost and its effect on the land
	.	Inuit food and culture
	.	Inuit legends and myths
	.	Communication in the Arctic
	.	Inuit past and future
	.	Animals of the Arctic
	.	Tundra life
	.	Inuit transportation, heat, and energy
	.	Arctic oceans
	.	Arctic climate
	.	Plant life in the Arctic
	.	Resources of the Arctic
	.	Inuit homes and families
	.	Recreation and leisure in the Arctic

After deciding on a topic, students will discuss how they can research and present their ideas in at least eight ways in a parent/community forum. They should identify one key question related to their topic that will guide the research and presentation.

Presentation format will vary depending on which intellectual domain students are using -- e.g., some may write a song, some may do an essay or verbal report; others may create a Web site.

Each group should share its question and planned approach with the class and ask for suggestions to focus and tighten the main question for inquiry. Develop rubrics with the students to score the projects they will create. Students create their projects and present them to the class or to a conference that includes parents and others in the school.

Assessment: Using the rubrics.

Closure: In the event you have another week on this topic, students could create a theatrical performance that further develops their presented themes. At the end of the first class, ask them how their work might be turned into a theatrical production.

Reflection: With such a broad choice of topics, students may lose focus. Be sure to help them rapidly narrow down the question that they wish to explore and the domain in which it will best be represented.